New Zealand
Schools adopt NCEA alternative as unqualified school leavers rise
Growing numbers of schools are adopting a tertiary-level qualification adapted for secondary students as more pupils leave without NCEA qualifications.
Thread
Teenagers leaving school without qualifications
Who covered this thread
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How many of this thread’s stories each outlet we track filed something on. A zero means no article of theirs reached any story here — an absence, not an accusation.
The story so far
New Zealand
NCEA failure rate worse than official figures show, with unqualified teens missing from data
New Zealand's NCEA failure rate is larger and worsening than reported, with thousands of unqualified teenagers excluded from official statistics.
New Zealand
Actual number of teenagers leaving school without qualifications is higher than reported
New Zealand's Education Ministry method of counting qualifications means the true figure of teens without credentials is higher than previously disclosed.
New Zealand
More than 10,000 teens left school in 2025 with no qualifications
Over 10,000 New Zealand teenagers left school last year without any formal qualifications, marking a continuing rise.
Career
How to guide teenagers towards choosing a successful career
About 10,000 New Zealand school leavers left without qualifications last year, prompting advice on helping teens pick a career path.